All Terrorism Matters

Does anyone even know what the Syrian, Lebanese, Turkish, Pakistani, Nigerian, or Iraqi flags look like? I’m sure they don’t resemble the French flag that still adorns more than a few Facebook profile pictures to this day. But I’m curious why I don’t see them plastered all over the internet, considering how many times those countries have suffered violent attacks at the hands of terrorism.

On November 14th, there were 43 people killed and another 250 injured from a blast in the city center of Beirut, Lebanon. January 30th, and 86 people were burned to death when their huts were firebombed outside Maiduguri, Nigeria. On February 17th, 28 people were killed and over 60 injured when a car bomb struck a military convoy in the center of Ankara, Turkey. On February 21st, 83 people were killed in morning rush hour traffic by a series of explosions.

Continuing: March 7th, 60 Iraqis killed when a truck bomb slams into a security checkpoint. March 14th, 37 people were killed and another 70 injured in Ankara, Turkey when a car bomb struck the capital city. March 26th, 41 people died at a soccer match when the suicide bomber detonated his vest at the trophy ceremony. March 27th, at least 70 killed and almost 300 injured when another suicide bomber detonated outside a park in Lahore, Pakistan.

Do we really only support countries that appear on your Top 10 Places to Visit list? Is it so simple that we only get worked up when the people who’ve been attacked look more like a Mentos commercial than Sally Struthers’ CCF spot? Brussels didn’t even get a fraction of the coverage we saw during the Paris attacks, not to mention the attacks in the other non-European countries. I’m assuming it’s because your average Joe can’t disconnect Brussels the country from Brussels the sprouts. How legitimate can we be in the “War on Terror” if we turn a blind eye to terrorism that only kills people who are darker than Wonder Bread? How can we effectively fight terrorism when we don’t even acknowledge the attacks that occur in countries most can’t identify on a map?

Terrorism will continue and will succeed in recruiting more to its cause(s) the more we close our eyes to the reality that it’s a daily occurrence in some parts of the world. And propagating the narrative that European countries are our only concern, with regards to the effects of terrorism, is even more damaging. It’s almost like someone ignoring the cancer on their toe because the cancer on their face is taking up all of their focus. Either way, you have to address the lethality of both, no matter how unpleasant they are. Terrorism, like cancer, will spread when ignored.

9 Responses to All Terrorism Matters

I read a little piece on social media yesterday that spoke to the Brussels attacks. The OP pointed out that Christians terrorized Muslims for decades and now it’s the Muslims’ turn. I was shocked at that thinking, and even more shocked at the dozens of comments supporting this loon’s position. I pointed out that past violence doesn’t justify present violence, while acknowledging that many Christians, both those in the dark ages, and those today, were and are hypocritical, homophobic, and often cruel, yet that doesn’t justify their mass murder by renegade Islam. I went on to condemn, in the strongest terms, the actions of radical Islamic terrorists, suggesting most vigorously, that those responsible need to be hunted down and destroyed. I was roundly condemned by the wild-eyed liberals, but I expected that.

Sometimes (read almost always) people just blindly root for their team. Facts,a long with rational and logical thinking, are hard to hear over the mob’s screams for blood. I foresee pitchforks and torches making a resurgence.

It’s true about tribalism. Such sentiments soothe our innate need to support the pack against others. I think that the urge to hate comes first and then reasons are assembled, and seeing this movement as a retaliation for the Crusades or the Inquisition is rather pathetic. I don’t pretend to understand either side of this, but I suspect it’s more of a retaliation for personal failure just looking for a target. But of course there are institutions encouraging young men to be martyrs and giving the useless a purpose. Many, if not most religions do very well amongst the failed, the self-loathing and it’s not always for the good.

Glenn what I don’t understand is how Western kids can fall for ISIS recruiting tools. They don’t speak the language, it doesn’t pay much, and it usually ends in death. I know there is the issue of these young men and women not having complete families, live in poverty, and etc., but falling prey to such a wicked ideology is beyond me.

The problem we are already seeing is that terrorist attacks in Europe and the Middle East have become so frequent they are commonplace. As a result people are ‘ho-humming” them. Until it happens here to the extent that it happened in Paris and Brussels Americans will just pay lip service to the tragedy.

The world is too big to care about everyone in it. Obviously Americans don’t care about Iraqis getting killed because they are so far removed from us. We care about Brussels because America and Europe have a similar racial and historical identity.

Losing a single European is like felling a redwood. A dozen Pakistanis in a carbomb is like pulling up grass.